Welcome to Monday Musings the first week of August is done and dusted…soon be time to make the Christmas puddings and cake…Just saying!…my phone arrived back to me very quickly courtesy of #thaismile airways such good service…I am impressed…
Today there is a selection of posts which struck a chord with me this last week…renewable energy seems to be constantly in the news and this post by acflory (Meeks) shows us that there is another viable alternative which is a plus and gives us more hope for the future …
Please click the highlighted link below to read the original post.
The beautiful Monarch Butterfly is now an “endangered species” …
As of July 25, 2022—Monarch butterflies are on the Endangered Threatened Species “Red List.”
Their status was announced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature last week…to read what we can do please click the highlighted link below…
When attacks are made on women and children, by whom and who should not be why news is not reported…News agencies need to show all the news when acts of barbarism are continually committed on children and women…Pete has highlighted this in his recent post please click the highlighted link below…most of us have children or grandchildren would we be happy if these children were part of our families…
Thank you for joining me today as always I look forward to your comments …I hope you all have a productive week ahead and if you have sunshine ..enjoy! or keep cool..but be happy and pass along a smile…x
Welcome to my weekly roundup...March has definitely arrived tonight the sky was a vibrant
red which means tomorrow will be another scorcher…
In other parts of the world, I am seeing the images of daffodils, tulips and cherry/apple
blossom appearing…such a joyful flowers which always makes me think of Wordsworth…” a
host of golden daffodils”
What is in store for you then this week if you are catching up… My new A-Z World Cuisines
featuring food from Belgium and anyone who has visited this lovely country will probably agree
that Moules and Frites are a wonderful thing… these posts seem to have struck a chord with
everyone and have been very well received …I have had some lovely comments…
plus it’s fun to research and write… Monday Musings are just some findings from the week
before which I either find amusing or not, … and on Tuesday there was another Chicken
recipe… beautiful colourful chicken stir fry with Thai Eggplants…it is also National Celery Month
and this delicious crunchy vegetable has some surprising uses…
Friday review and the subject was “Glace Cherries” and how they are produced…Saturday Snippets is always a joy to write for me…and this week it was the “Heart” all part of the human body…plus there are some fascinating connections to the word ”Heart”…from all the tunes which feature the heart…plus the fascinating science which is going on to produce an artificial heart it is awesome.
Right…enough of my chatter…Let’s have look at last week…
Monday Musings!
Monday Musings are a selection of things that have caught my eye the previous week…it could a song, a recipe or just something which has made me go wow!… Last week it was a podcast on “Who Benefits from Fake Meat” and how much is a stick of butter…I wish all measurements were universal…Tori bless her sent me a couple of conversion charts…Thank you, Tori x…Plus we then had one of my favourite rockers filling potholes…
One of the best meals of Moules and Fries can be had in Belgium…Plus they are famed for the Waffles but it’s not all fast food…they are also famed for their Chocolate… the Meatballs, the wonderful slow cooked Flemish stew, Rabbit cooked with prunes which was once a humble peasant dish and now it has been refined into something else by chefs around the country.
There is the humble sausage and mash ..served by parents and grandparents and cooked with black or white sausages or the blood sausage…Often, the mashed potatoes will be mixed with a vegetable, like carrots, to create stoemp, the typical Belgian kind of filling mashed potatoes…
Sally is rewinding this series which was one I was happy to be part of ..It was interesting matching recipes to vitamins and I think so much easier when you know you need to increase a certain vitamin and the recipe is all tried and tested for you…I hope you think so too…Today Sally is talking about why it is important to have enough of the vitamin B6 in our diets…Please head over and have a read…
I love fresh cherries when they are in season but sometimes glace or maraschino cherries are called for and I was quite shocked when I realised how they were manufactured but it is also very easy to make your own…I can do nothing about the sugar but we can omit the chemicals and maybe some of the sugar…and steeped in Brandy who wouldn’t love then? Just saying!
Brown Rice…a healthy alternative to white rice although of the white rice Jasmine Rice which we grow and eat here is the better of the white kinds of rice saying that I love brown rice, wild rice and raspberry rice my family doesn’t…In this post-Sally tells us about the benefits of eating brown rice and has provided us with a lovely recipe which I will be making and portioning for the week which means I will be happy as will the rest of the family to me that sounds like a plan…please head over and have a read…
I love writing Saturday Snippets as I can add music and hopefully interesting facts which connect to my chosen prompt of the week…This week my prompt was “Heart”…I truly didn’t know there were so many great songs about the “Heart”…However, I had my Roxette moment and hopefully, she now has a few more fans, of course, Ann Wilson the lead singer of the rock band Heart had to feature as well…her performance at the Kennedy Centre was stunning and an all-time favourite of mine…which meant this week it was Ann and Marie who brilliantly fitted into my theme…”Heart”
Welcome to my new A-Z …World Cuisines…where I will be looking at the countries of the world, their food and national dish or their most popular dish around the world…by this I mean some dishes are eaten in many countries as their fame has spread around the world…I have Chelto thank for giving me some ideas from which this one took shape…Thank you Chel x
Today I am looking at the cuisine of Belgium…
Belgium is situated in the west of Europe, bordered to the north by the Netherlands, to the east by Germany and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and to the south and the west by France…it was also one of the first places I visited on a school trip many moons ago…I do however have an abiding memory of the frites with mayonnaise…
Belgium as a country may have been overshadowed by its more popular neighbours but the regional cuisine is enough to entice any serious traveller… Belgium has been rather famous for its junk food but Belgian food is not just a mixture of mouth-watering dishes or junk food; it is an exquisite blend of the food styles of France, Germany, and the Netherlands….and anyone who produces such delicious “chocolate” goes up a notch in my eyes…
What about the Swiss chocolate makers I hear you say…Swiss chocolates are creamier and smoother on the palette while Belgian chocolate is quite dark and bitter. A strong bit of this chocolate will delight anyone. Dark chocolate tastes wonderful and it has so many health benefits too when consumed in moderation…a winner in my eyes…
Neuhaus is one of the best chocolate brands in Belgium and has an interesting history…From pharmacist to Chocolatier, the Neuhaus family has always kept people’s well-being and contentment at heart.
Jean Neuhaus was a Swiss with Italian roots. When he arrived in Switzerland, Jean’s family changed its name from “Casanova” to “Neuhaus”. He wanted to become a doctor to help people and so he went to study medicine in Grenoble. He failed twice, mainly because he could not bear the sight of blood.
He then moved and settled in Brussels in 1857. In the same year, he opened a pharmacy in the prestigious Queen’s Gallery. To delight his customers, Jean Neuhaus covered his medicines with a fine layer of chocolate.
The family opened its original Neuhaus Boutique in Brussels’ exquisite Galerie de la Reine in 1857 and the shop continues to thrive there today.
Not only is Belgium famous for its chocolate but it’s famed for the ‘Waffle”…it was Maurice Vermersch who introduced a simplified version of the Brussels waffle recipe as his research led him to the conclusion that many Americans could not identify Brussels as the capital of Belgium and thus did not recognise Brussels Waffles thus he came up with the alternative name of Bel-Gem Waffles…
There is also a connection with the legendary Belgium Detective Poirot and many waffles and waffle houses are prefixed with Poirot’s name i.e Poirot’s Belgium Waffles…
What Is The Difference Between a Regular Waffle and a Belgian Waffle? Belgian waffles are thicker and often larger than regular waffles because they are made with a waffle iron that has deeper grids. These deep pockets are perfect for holding delicious pools of syrup!…plus Belgium waffles are generally yeast based…with a lighter crisper texture…
Now let’s get back to the Frites..you will never hear a Belgium calling them fries…There’s a lot of controversy around who invented fried potatoes, but most people will agree that the Belgians perfected them. Once you eat fries in Belgium, they’ll never taste as good anywhere else.
While you can get Belgian fries at virtually any restaurant, they are invariably best from a genuine friterie (French) or frietkot/frituur (Flemish). These fry shops can be anything from a small building to a fry truck and the best ones are hotly contested and voted on annually a prize to be coveted.
Of course, most serve other foods (all of them deep-fried), the emphasis is always on cooking the Frites to crispy, golden perfection.
Some friteries or fries shacks still serve their fries in traditional paper cones, while others have turned to the more convenient but less eco-friendly plastic containers.
Moules-Frites, or mussels with fries, is a classic Belgian dish you can find at just about any café or brasserie in Brussels. It’s one of the foods to eat in Belgium. The most common way mussels are served in Belgium is steamed in white wine, in big black mussel pots. In addition to wine, moules marinières also contain shallots, parsley, and butter. Other cooking methods include cream, beer, or even mustard sauce…
And who better to give you a step by step guide to the cooking of a perfect Moules and Frites are “The Hairy Bikers”
These sound absolutely delicious…and next time I cook mussels I am going to serve them with Frites and Mayonnaise the Belgium way …Hubby will be pleased as he loves his frites/chips…
But is Belgium all Frites and Waffles...of course not they are famed for the Meatballs, the wonderful slow cooked Flemish stew, Rabbit cooked with prunes which was once a humble peasant dish and now it has been refined into something else by chefs around the country.
There is the humble sausage and mash ..served by parents and grandparents and cooked with black or white sausages or the blood sausage…Often, the mashed potatoes will be mixed with a vegetable, like carrots, to create stoemp, the typical Belgian kind of filling mashed potatoes.
Eels in a green sauce which reminds me of pie, mash and eels which is a popular dish in the East End of London…but of course here in Belgium, they are served with Frites rather than mashed potatoes…
That’s all for today on Belgium Cuisine I look forward to your comments…xx
Retired? No one told me! 